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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Forget Full-time: Make Part-Time Freelancing Work for You

When
I started freelancing, I put in a lot of time to get my business going. To get
any business started, you must market, and as a freelancer, that started with
researching publications. In other words, I read a lot (and I’m talking dozens) of different magazines, trying to
familiarize myself with what they covered and find homes for potential story
ideas.

I also spent inordinate amounts of
time researching stories. Like many writers, I was worried about not having
enough information about a particular topic, so I’d research and research and
research before I started writing. You don’t need a doctorate (or even a
master’s degree) to write an article, but it took me several years before I
realized I didn’t have to comprehend every nuance of a subject to write about
it.

The bottom line is that I was
working at least forty hours a week, often more, in my quest for freelance success.
But it’s not the amount of time you put into your career that determines
whether you make money—it’s how you spend that time. Once I cut back on
unnecessary research, focused on a handful of markets instead of pitching
dozens of magazines at once, and developed regular clients, I was much more
efficient. Today I work part-time by choice (I'm a stay-at-home mom to two little kids), but I strive to make a full-time
living—and many freelancers do the same.

Gretchen Roberts is a former newspaper editor who
has been freelancing part-time since her oldest child was born. “Part-time just
made sense for me then, and it still does. I now have three children ages
eight, four, and one, and my schedule has changed with their births, milestones, schedules,
and child care availability,” says Roberts, author of the e-book Full-TimeIncome in Part-Time Hours: 22 Secrets to Writing Success in under 40 Hours aWeek.
“I truly feel I have the best of both worlds—time to spend with my kids, but
time to get away from the craziness that is raising three kids, and devote
energy to my professional life. I don't consider myself anything less than a
full-fledged professional just because I work part-time and am changing dirty
diapers when I'm not tapping at my keyboard.”

Still, with limited time, Roberts
has had to learn to be extremely efficient. “I treat my working hours as prime time.
I don't waste them checking e-mail, writing blog posts, posting my Facebook
status. Well, okay … sometimes I post my Facebook status,” says Roberts. “But
for the most part I try to really focus on paying projects, because if I lose
sight of the big picture, it's too easy to fritter away a day, a week, a month …
and my income takes a bit hit.

“Second, I plan ahead. If I know I'm
going to have forty-five minutes while the baby naps, I plan a specific task or
two for that time,” she says. “If I have a story due, I block out three or four
hours to write it. When you have less time, you absolutely have to be efficient
about using it.” That’s why Roberts pursues bigger projects over shorter
assignments that require her to constantly change focus, and works with the
same clients over and over.

“Think about
it: When you get a new assignment from a new editor or publication, there's a
huge learning curve. You have to fill out a flurry of paperwork, learn the
style of the publication, communicate in-depth with the editor or client about
his or her goals for the assignment, and possibly do a revise or two if you
don't quite hit the mark,” says Roberts. “The second time, everything's easier.
You're in the system, so no paperwork except for a contract. You've learned the
‘voice’ your client or editor expects from your work. The learning curve is
lower, and you're a more efficient writer.”

Roberts’ attitude and efficiency has
produced an income of between $40,000 and $70,000 working fifteen to twenty
hours a week for the past five years. “I think writers have to know that this
kind of income is possible, rather than settling for less because they figure
part-time hours means part-time income,” says Roberts.

I know writers who put in plenty of hours but
don’t make the money they want, and I know writers like Roberts who make full-time
money in far less than forty hours a week. My point? Rethink what “full-time”
freelancing means. It’s not about how many hours you work but how you spend
them that determines whether you can support yourself with your freelance
income.

Today I'm working about 15 hours/week by choice, though I plan to ramp that up as my kids get older. Readers, what about you? How many hours do you work a week? Are you working more or less than you'd like--or have you found the perfect work balance? Please share your experience in a comment, below. Thank you!